Brendan Cowell: Why don't we discuss why they left?

One of Brendan Cowell's best mates took his own life at 21. That was soon followed by another friend's mother, then a neighbour, and in the years to come, he'd hear of more lives gone.

"It really confused me and it made me very angry," he says.

So he wrote about it in his first novel, How it Feels.

"After these lives were taken it was almost like they were washed down the river now and we no longer considered them.

"And I wonder why we don't discuss why they left," he asks.

Brendan is now an Ambassador for Suicide Prevention Australia which wants to halve the number of suicides in Australia by 2023.

He's particularly interested in why young men struggle.

"Where you grow up, you often think 'this is it'... The first time someone breaks your heart or the first time you realise you're not good at something, or your mates take off to better horizons and you're stuck there, you think, 'this is it'.

"But the thing we don't know is that there's so many other chapters of life to come," he says.

Brendan hopes that by talking about it, other men will find it easier to talk to eachother about their issues.

"Just the ability to call up an uncle or your mate and say, 'Man, I am pretty confused at the moment' or 'I don't know what to do', or 'I can't control my existence'."

"I think that'd be a nice thing for us to be able to be brave enough to say... and maybe more people would stay on the earth," he says.

Suicide Prevention Australia hopes to get 40,000 signatures, in the lead up to World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10), to take to the Australian government after this weekend's election.

If you or anyone you know needs assistance, call Lifeline on 131114 or go to lifeline.org.au